COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, UNION AFFILIATION, AND TEACHER SALARIES: AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
THEODORE J. KOWALSKI AND DENNIS R. LOOMIS
DOI: 10.2190/16GC-36X6-HMEN-UWET
Abstract
This research was conducted in Missouri, This state provides a unique environment for studying collective bargaining in public education, because of the majority of local teacher organizations are affiliated with the Missouri State Teachers Association (an independent state organization) and only about 10% of the school districts are engaged in formal collective bargaining. The results exhibited that neither national teacher organization, N.E.A. nor A.F.T., has been able to make significant inroads into Missouri. Likewise, there was no indication that the use of collective bargaining by school districts was increasing. An analysis of absolute teacher salary levels established that teachers affiliated with the national organizations had higher salaries than those who were affiliated with the independent state association or those with no affiliation, and that teacher engaged in formal collective bargaining had higher salaries than those who were not. Comparison of percent increases since 1976-1977, however, did not yield significant differences between these same groupings. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.